Christmas with
Wallace and Gromit - 2 November 2010

This year’s Christmas
stamps will feature the much-loved animated characters, Wallace and
Gromit. The cheese-loving, tank-top wearing Wallace and his
misunderstood hound, Gromit, will appear on seven Christmas stampss, a
miniature sheet and a Smilers
Sheet. Since 2006 all Christmas stamps are standard definitive
size except for the 1st and 2nd Class Large stamps where the 1st
and 2nd Class images are repeated but with more detail revealed on the
wider format stamps. All Christmas stamps are self-adhesive.

Tthe two 2007
Madonna stamps
will also be reissued this year to provide a religious
alternative.

2nd
Class - Wallace and Gromit carol singing
Suitably wrapped up against the cold Wallace and Gromit go carol
singing, the wider format of the Large stamp shows a lit up
Christmas
tree in the background.

1st Class - Gromit posting
Christmas cards
A robin watches Gromit as he posts the duo’s cards. The wider
format of the Large stamp reveals the wicked penguin Feathers
McGraw
about to
launch a snowball from behind the pillar box.

60p
- Wallace dressing the Christmas tree
Wallace places a Christmas fairy that looks suspiciously like
Feathers
McGraw on top of the Christmas tree

Taking a look at how Wallace and Gromit prepare and enjoy the Christmas
festivities sounds straightforward, but the challenge was making the
world of Wallace and Gromit that we are familiar with through the
films, work at stamp size.

Royal Mail worked closely with creator Nick Park and the team at
Aardman Animations in the genesis of the designs. The approach to the
stamps was similar to how Aardman create a film. First Nick
Park drew scenes and visual jokes involving the characters, refi ning
the designs to work in miniature. After many such roughs a core of
scenes was agreed upon. When he and Royal Mail were satisfi
ed they would reproduce in a very small format, Nick Park created
coloured versions of the illustrations which were reduced to stamp size.

Then the Aardman model-makers were brought in to make the illustrations
come to life, with Nick Park overseeing production. Each stamp was
created like a scene from a film, with models, props and background
sets especially constructed. For example, in the 2nd Class stamp
design, the lights in the background of the lamp (and on the Christmas
tree in the Large 2nd Class design) are real light sources, and the
envelope being posted on the 1st Class stamp features a Wallace and
Gromit 1st Class stamp.

The scenes were then photographed and Royal Mail formatted the images
into stamp designs.

Photography
background
There was a large, specialist team at Aardman involved in the
production of these stamps including model makers, animators,
continuity checkers, photographers and lighting specialists. The images
feature close up shots of the characters in detailed scenes. The brief
was to create a shallow depth of fi eld effect but retain the focus on
Wallace and Gromit. Multiple shots were taken of each scene
with the focus point changing each time so that on the final image
designers could select the exact part of the scene to keep in focus.
The photography alone took over two weeks, and the post-photography
phase took a further three weeks, and involved pulling together all the
different shots and making them work as a composite image.

The stamps have been more than two years in the making.

Technical
details:
The stamps were designed by Aardman Animations Ltd and Royal Mail.
The sheet stamps & MS are printed in gravure by De La
Rue Security Print in sheets of 50. The individual stamps are
20 x 24mm (30 x 24mm large) self-adhesive; the 115 x 102mm miniature
sheet is conventionally gummed.
Booklets of 12 x 1st class and 12 x 2nd class stamps
will also be sold - technical details to be confirmed.

Smilers Sheet

The Smilers® Sheet contains 20 stamps: 8 x 1st
class, 8 x 2nd
class and 2 each of the two airmail rate stamps, 60p &
97p.
This extension to the Smilers range may be welcomed by
people who want to Personalise stamps for overseas mail but this
arrangement means that, as last year, there are only two
sets per sheet, rather than 4 in previous years. Collectors
of Smilers singles are advised to place their orders early to avoid
disappointment!

The
Smilers
sheet, featuring Wallace’s Stamp-O-Matic machine, was
designed by True North and illustrated by Bill Kerwin. It
will probably be printed in litho by Cartor Security
Printers.

Ref
L11923 First Day of
Issue, Selfridges, London / Royal Mail Readers
will note the
similarity with 11904 above - Royal Mail have not indicated
whether
this is additional to or a replacement for 11904.

This page
was updated 29 October 2010.

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